Biggest hard disk possible in a MacBook Pro

Okay, so I now have 5 Gb left on my MacBook Pro hard disk (boot camp and windows removed!) and it's showing in the performance sector. The virtual memory is shrinking to allow me more space and I'm being wary of saving stuff to the hard disk. I have the 80 Gb HD, and I've figured 120 probably isn't going to be enough for me either.

Whats the biggest reliable (and not too expensive, I am a student) hard disk for laptops available which would work well in my MBP?

Staff Member

The largest reasonable disk available right now is 120 GB...you need one with a SATA connector. There is a 160 GB SATA drive (Fujitsu, maybe?), but its 4200 rpm and verrrry slow. Seagate has a PATA 160 GB 5400 rpm drive out now, with the SATA version due very soon...I'd wait for that one.

I am saving all my CDs at 192 VBR AAC in iTunes (I NEED my music collection with me at all times. I die if I get too far away from my music) and I've started recording my Vinyl collection. In the entire household we have around 10,000 vinyls so I need a nice big juicy hard disk (I'm not going to save ALL those files!).

You should stick those songs on a external hard drive. The problem is that you want to be able to carry it with you all the time, I doubt you'd like to lug that around. Do you need 10000000000000 songs on your laptop?

Says that Seagate is going to have 160 GB 5400 and 7200 RPM hard drives out fairly soon, the 5400 rpm option featuring a 256 MB buffer making it a "hybrid drive"

The second link shows Toshiba is going to ship a 200GB 4200 rpm drive this year as well.

Keep in mind that it's not the easiest thing in the world to replace the hard drive yourself on the Macbook pro. Make sure to check the Apple Repair doc to see if you're up to it or bring it to an Apple Certified Service place to have it upgraded.

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